Kentish band

Warp: Purple silk
Weft: White linen
Brocade: Gold strip
Pattern: "Sarre 94" - Kentish pattern
Cards: 9
Width:7mm
Length: Approx. 1.2 metres
What's new: Metal strip brocade, brocade on both sides (in places)

I wanted to do a band using metal strips and the Kentish bands seemed most appropriate. The pattern is one from 's site (It's also on Ælfflæd's Saxon Rabbit which has a wider variety of Kentish patterns). I altered it slightly to make it symmetrical to my eye. I used a white linen weft because I wanted to see what it looked like- linen was often used as a weft but it probably wasn't dyed to match the warp-not always anyway. The contrasting weft shows up at the edges and looks alright if the weaving is perfect, but is very unforgiving of aberrations.

The metal strip I used was uncoiled Rajmahal Sadi thread. It makes for a very thin strip. I used it double. It didn't seem very annoying to use but I seemed to be going a lot slower than usual considering the simplicity of the pattern.

I recently bought some purple wool to make into a "day bliaut" and I decided to use this band for that despite the Dark Ages nature of the band- it's pretty hard to distinguish from bands with the Anchor Lame thread even from close up. Because I wanted the band to go around the keyhole neck of the garment I thought I'd give a go to switching the side of the band the brocade shows on, so it can turn a 90 degree corner with a fold (hope that makes sense). For about 2cm around the corner I brocaded both sides.

I wove enough for bicep bands in addition to the neck decoration. I was originally considering doing more of this pattern for the wide cuffs of the bliaut, but I got too bored so I guess that's not going to happen.Update: you can see the finished "day bliaut" here.

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